Death knights as tanks
Blizzard claims that Death Knights (DKs) are designed as a hybrid Tanking/DPS class, and that both roles can be accomplished by any of the 3 Death Knight talent trees. These three trees, or specs, are Blood, Frost and Unholy. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses in tanking and DPS, which will be covered in this article. How others see you as a Tank In PuGs, especially LFD groups, Death Knights often have the stigma of being poor and inexperienced tanks. In general, this stigma dissipates at higher levels and is mainly prominent in early Outland dungeons, because this is where people who play Death Knights to get faster queues as tanks, but where those with no idea how to tank, are concentrated. Once they get to higher levels, such people are usually told off by frustrated party members, so if you actually are a good Death Knight tank, you will not suffer this prejudice in Northrend. At Wrath of the Lich King end-game content, Death Knights are considered one of the stronger tank classes. Many high end raiding guilds have DKs as Main tanks and Off tanks, because of their flexibility and high effective health. Tanking Basics Tanks have 3 roles in an effective raid or group. Firstly, to hold Aggro by maintaining the highest Threat on all enemies. Second is Survivability, which is the tank's ability to mitigate and avoid incoming damage, and to increase the total damage they can receive. Third is Raid awareness and functionality, and what is meant by this is boss placement (both location and direction). * Threat, in detail: A tank must generate enough Threat to hold Aggro off of the DPS and Healers in the raid or group. Threat is a number based system in which each individual Mob or Raid boss keeps track of the damage and high threat attacks caused to them, and focus their attention at the highest threat player or NPC in the vicinity. Threat comes in two types, Area of Effect based threat (usually associated with Trash (mob)s) and Single target threat (usually on Raid Bosses and Strong Trash (mob)s). * Survivability, in detail: In general, survivability is a tanks ability to stay alive through mitigation and avoidance of incoming damage. Mitigation is the lessening of damage per hit, and is generally seen as the most effective tank method of increasing survivability. Mitigation mostly involves the rotation of tank-based Cooldowns, as well as static Armor. Avoidance, which is seen to be finicky and unreliable survivability stats, involve Miss Dodge, Parry and Block (DKs do not use shields, and cannot block). Finally, total Stamina is extremely important, as it increases total health pool and gives the healers more reaction time to heal you, as well as helps absorb chained non-avoided attacks. In current end-game content, it is generally agreed upon that "Effective Health" is the most important stat for a tank. Effective health is the total health pool of a tank, multiplied by the static physical damage mitigation from armor. In other words, Tanks' most effective method of increasing their survivability is to increase the total damage they can take before dying by increasing armor, static damage reductions and Health. *Raid Functionality and Awareness, in detail: Certainly, every raid member should be aware of their surroundings and know their role in it, and tanks have a very key and central role in almost every fight in end-game content. Most fights require bosses to be placed in a certain location and faced in a certain direction. An example of this would by Onyxia, a Dragon who cannot by faced towards the raid (because of Flame Breath) and cannot be faced directly away from the raid (Tail Swipes); she also must be tanked with the tank's back against a wall, or he will constantly be knocked back by wing buffets. Some fights require a boss to be kited, or moved, from specific location to another area. An example of this would be Professor Putricide, who must be kited back and forth through the room at every add spawn, kited out of goo, ooze and Choking gas bombs. Many fights also have Adds that spawn, and must be picked up by an Off-Tank, and placed in a certain location. An example of this would be Anub'arak, who spawns Nerubian Adds who must be picked up and placed on patches of ice, so they will not burrow. Remember: Every boss encounter is different, and everyone will expect you to know exactly what you're doing. Research the fight before attempting tanking it, and if you still don't feel comfortable, do the fight a couple times as a DPS until you get the hang of it. Generating Threat and Holding Aggro Death Knights are unique in their methods of threat generation. Unlike Druids, Warriors and Paladins, Death Knights use much the same rotation as a DPS Death Knight would, with a few small variations. Death Knights have a 2.0735x Threat Multiplier while in Frost Presence, which more than doubles the threat caused by the damage put out by that Death Knight. Other moves have multipliers as well, in order to generate threat and give structure to DK Tank rotation: *Rune Strike: Consumes Runic Power, but no Global Cooldown. Hits on next attack, with a 1.75x multiplier (3.5x while in Frost Presence). *Death and Decay (death knight ability): Consumes 1 Global Cooldown and 1 of Each Rune, places an AoE move on the ground, with a 1.9x multiplier (3.8x in FP). *Icy Touch: Consume 1 Frost Rune, and 1 GCD. As of Patch 3.3.3, Icy Touch now has a 7x multiplier (14x while in Frost Presence). Significance: * On multiple targets, Death and Decay should be used whenever possible, because it deals significant bonus threat. * Because of the constant Rune Strikes using up Runic Power, Death Coil and Frost Strike will be used less. * Because of Icy Touch's High Threat, a Death Knight who has threat problems, or wishes a secure snap-threat pickup, should spam Icy Touch. Note that because most end-game raid encounters are balanced around a modest amount of DPS from the tank as well, spamming Icy Touch unless it is necessary to maintain aggro is not a good tactic. * Frost Presence should always be used while tanking. The Presence increases armor contribution from items by 60% and total stamina by 8%.. The key dynamic is the increased threat generation. Frost Presence grants 2.0735x threat per 1 damage done (multiplied by the bonus threat from Rune Strike and Death and Decay). The dynamic allows a DK to tank without a shield (similar to a Druid’s Bear form). Because a DK can achieve high armor without a shield through Frost Presence, DKs can equip two-hand or dual-wield weapons, and thus significantly increasing their damage output relative to a Prot Warrior or Prot Paladin. It is this increased damage output that helps to generate threat (via damage) without the benefit of tree-specific talents possessed by Warriors and Paladins. When opening combat on a group of multiple enemies, the easiest way is to walk in close and, just as they start to attack you, lay down Death and Decay at your feet. Then, build up diseases either through the IT/ PS/ Pest rotation or with the Glyph of Howling Blast followed by Blood Boil, if you have Howling Blast from the Frost talent tree. Glyph of Disease (and maybe Glyph of Pestilence) should be used if you use Pestilence; you don't want to be continually switching targets or using two global cooldowns to replenish diseases on your main target. * Alternatively, you can lay down a Death and Decay at your feet, and then use Death Grip to pull an enemy to you - if the rest of the mob is melee, they will run into your waiting AoE. When using this method, obviously pick out the caster(s) in the group for Death Grip. Then continue the rotation as above. Death and Decay, if you watch your runes, can be extremely helpful if you have a problem with sustained AoE threat (or new adds) - 2/2 Morbidity is a great talent to help this. However, your other AoE attacks are likely to hold threat without extra uses of D&D in something such as a heroic. For opening attacks on a single target, you should use Icy Touch from a distance. You could use Death and Decay, but the runes used for holding a single target's threat this way are essentially wasted. Once in melee range, make sure to use Plague Strike to inflict Blood Plague. Which moves you use after this point will depend on your spec. Icy Touch generates more threat than any of these abilities, so applying Icy Touch a second time can increase your threat further if needed. However, if your threat is already high, one of the Unholy/Frost rune-based strikes should be used instead, to increase damage output. For either single-target or AoE, you'll want to save your runic power for Rune Strike (though if your RP is at 60 or higher, you can use a Death Coil/Frost Strike). Rune Strike, since it does high threat and does not use the global cooldown, should be used whenever it is available. As well, the two best sigils available from badges (as of patch 3.3) are dependent upon Rune Strike, and provide more than 200 free Dodge Rating. Like all other tanks, Death Knight tanks should specialize in stamina. After stamina, DK tanks should focus on Hit. Tanks who miss taunts or their initial Threat, are likely to cause a wipe or complicate the fight. Expertise is also useful for additional threat, but not as essential, as Parry Hasting has been all but removed from the game. Armor is also essential for end-game content. Currently, the hard armor cap is at 75% physical damage reduction, all DK tanks should strive for this. There are a few other abilities important to tanks: • Dark Command is a standard taunt. It commands the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you. It may be used once every 8 seconds. • Death Grip draws the target toward the DK and taunts the enemy, focusing its attacks on the caster for 3 seconds, and interrupts spellcasting. While it may be tempting to use this ability whenever possible, Dark Command is the more effective taunt because it has a much shorter cooldown. Use Death Grip only if Dark Command is on cooldown or if you need to pull a caster mob into melee range. Most bosses are immune to the 'grip' effect, but the 3-second taunt is still applied. • Strangulate is a ranged silence. It will make a spellcasting mob run into melee range with you. • Mind Freeze is a standard interrupt. While DPS classes should be interrupting spells, too often they will forget, and the job will fall to you. • Army of the Dead summons ten ghouls to fight by your side for one minute or until killed. In 5-man instances, many Death Knights use this on bosses, but this is ineffective and somewhat dangerous: the ghouls will repeatedly taunt the boss, spinning it around and potentially exposing other party members to cleave or AoE attacks. There are two situations in which the ability is actually useful: very tough multiple-target packs, and to prevent a wipe. In both cases, the ghouls will distract the enemies for 20-30 seconds, allowing your healers time to top everyone off and you to build up enough threat. As of Patch 3.3.3, AotD also causes a Tanking Cool Down of static reduced damage equal to your Dodge % + your Parry % while channeling the spell. Level ?? are immune to the taunt effect, but any adds they may spawn will not be. * Horn of Winter is a typical part of most Death Knight DPS rotations, but it generates a whopping total of 77 threat while in Frost Presence. It should not be used unless the buff is about to run out, or you really need the bonus Runic Power, otherwise it is a waste of a global cooldown. Survivability A DK needs to survive in order to do his/her job of holding aggro. Not dying is always a plus, and since a tank earns his/her pay by getting beat up, let’s take a look at how a DK can best mitigate damage. All DKs (regardless of spec) have some abilities that help survival: • Icy Touch chills the target for X Frost damage and infects them with Frost Fever, a disease that reduces ranged, melee attack, and casting speed by 15% for 12 seconds. Every tank should get Improved Icy Touch, increasing the reduction to 20%. • Mind Freeze is a spell interrupt. Useful on mobs that have a powerful attack with a long cast time. • Death Strike deals 60% weapon damage plus X and heals the Death Knight for a percent of damage done for each of diseases on the target. Core ability for Blood, occasionally useful for Frost and Unholy. • Strangulate silences an enemy for 5 seconds. This is an instant cast with a 30 yard range and a two minute cool down. Very useful for drawing casters close. • Death Pact sacrifices an undead minion, healing the Death Knight for 40% of his/her maximum health. Needs to be prepared in advance, since no tank should have a permanent ghoul. will make this ability less taxing. • Icebound Fortitude freezes the Death Knight's blood to become immune to Stun effects and reduce all damage by 20% for 12 seconds. The amount of damage reduced can be increased by Defense. At 535 defense (which every tank should have), damage is reduced by about 45%. This is the largest Death Knight tanking cooldown. • Anti-Magic Shell surrounds the DK with a shell that absorbs 75% of the damage dealt by harmful spells. Damage absorbed by shell energizes the DK with additional runic power. Lasts 5 sec. Useful for mobs that use a long-cast-time PBAoE spell, obviating the need to run away from the attack. Also useful for bosses with strong magical attacks, such as Sindragosa's Frost Breath. • Chains of Ice Shackles the target with frozen chains, reducing their movement to 95%. The target regains 10% of their movement each second for 10 sec. Useful for kiting mobs that hit so hard that they cannot be tanked for very long, like the Blistering Zombies in the Valithria Dreamwalker encounter. Each of these abilities helps the DK to survive in one way or another, either to reduce the damage that he/she sustains, or to replenish some of the health that the DK has lost. DK’s combine the mitigation/avoidance with health replenishment in their survivability mechanisms. Tanking Talents Blizzard decided to do something completely different with Death Knight talents. Instead of grouping the tanking talents all into one tree, they are spread out throughout the 3 trees. There are tanking specs for each of the trees. Even though each of the 3 trees is capable of tanking, that is only true if you have the appropriate talents within your tree. Tier 1 tanking talents are available to everyone: Blade Barrier, Anticipation, and Toughness (once you've filled out your tree, be sure to grab these). Then, depending on what tree you specialize in, you can pick up additional tanking talents such as Vampiric Blood, Bone Shield, or Unbreakable Armor. Tanks are asked to work in one of two potential scenarios – tanking trash and tanking bosses. The player will need to decide where he/she would like to specialize, because the three talent trees emphasize different aspects of tanking. Blood DK's have the best single target, due to their burst damage, Frost DK’s have a better AoE tanking than Blood, but is lacking a little in single targets, while Unholy DK’s are a bit more effective in the AoE tanking role (akin to the differences between Warrior and Paladin tanks). However, and this is important, DKs in any tree can serve as main tanks, regardless of the foe! One final piece of information worth considering: in Patch 3.3, Blizzard introduced the Looking For Group tool. This tool has spawned an incredible interest in 5-man heroics for badges and emblems, which in turn has put a premium on tank availability. As you look at different tanking abilities, consider which abilities work better for smaller groups and bosses in heroics versus which abilities work better in larger 10 and 25 man raids. Strategies, specs, and talents DO vary from 5 man groups to raids, and one size - or spec - does not fit all. Frost Tree Talents The Frost tree specializes in physical mitigation. It offers a number of defensive talents that will help a DK survive in the tank role. Tank-specific frost tree talents are: • Toughness (5/5, +10% armor). Every tank regardless of spec should take this ability. • Improved Icy Touch (3/3, +6% attack speed reduction). A requirement for every tank unless you have another group member providing the debuff. • Improved Frost Presence (2/2, While in Blood Presence or Unholy Presence, you keep the 6% stamina from Frost Presence, and damage done to you is decreased by an additional 2% in Frost Presence.) • Frigid Dreadplate (Reduces the chance that melee attacks will hit you by 1/2/3%.) • Howling Blast (Deals Frost damage to all enemies within 10 yards.) Good for AoE threat. This ability makes Frost tanks the only spec with decent burst threat. With the Glyph of Howling Blast, this ability can be used effectively on AoE mobs instead of the IT/ PS/ Pest rotation, allowing the tank to be a lot more reactive to a changing situation (extra adds, a well-geared DPS pulling a peripheral target, etc.) It also keeps a Blood Rune free - the most useful application for this is if you want to Strangulate an enemy caster rather than Death Grip them. However, with the added damage from Blood Plague and the recent improvements to Icy Touch when in Frost Presence, IT/ PS is far better for single-target threat. • Unbreakable Armor (1/1, +25% armor, +10% strength for 20 seconds) • Acclimation (3/3, When you are hit by a spell, you have a 30% chance to boost your resistance to that type of magic for 18 sec. Stacks up to 3 times). Excellent for magic fights, such as Sindragosa, Blood Prince Council and Valithria. • Guile of Gorefiend (3/3, increase the duration of your Icebound Fortitude by 6 seconds). More useful for the threat benefit. Many other excellent talent are available in the Frost tree which will help the DK add to his/her lethality, thus helping to hold aggro. Frost DKs offer excellent mitigation and avoidance as well as good burst threat. They have less stamina than Blood DKs and less sustained AOE ability than Unholy. High-end raid geared DK Tanks will fine Diminishing returns in the usefulness of Frost Tanking, as its main CD, Unbreakable Armor, will begin to hit the ceiling of the 75% hard-cap, and become wasted. Keep in mind that apart from Acclimation, Frost is not designed for Magic Tanking fights or Hybrid Magic/Physical fights. Unholy Tree Talents The unholy tree specializes in AoE aggro and Magic Tanking. Unholy tanks also have a number of talents that allow them to take on the tanking role. Tank-specific Unholy tree talents are: • Morbidity (3/3, reduces the cool down on Death and Decay by 15 seconds) Hugely useful in heroics, decent in raids. • Anticipation (5/5, increases dodge rate +5%) Every tank regardless of spec should take this ability. • Epidemic (2/2, increases the duration of Blood Plague and Frost Fever by 6 seconds). Useful for sustained threat generation, best when combined with Pestilence and Glyph of Disease. • Unholy Command (2/2, Reduces the cool down of your Death Grip ability by 10 seconds) Very marginal. Remember that you have two taunts, and Dark Command has a much shorter cooldown. • Corpse Explosion (1/1, Causes a corpse to explode for shadow damage modified by attack power to all enemies within 10 yards.) Situationally useful, but not a core tanking talent. • On a Pale Horse (2/2, The duration of all Stun and Fear effects used against you is reduced by 20%). A PvP and leveling talent, marginal for tanking. • Magic Suppression (3/3, You take 6% less damage from all magic. In addition, your Anti-Magic Shell absorbs an additional 25% of spell damage.) Especially useful in 5 man heroics when you face a lot of magic damage and a healer that is not necessarily reliable. Useful on some raid fights, such as Sindragosa, Valithria and Blood Prince Council. • Anti-Magic Zone (1/1, Places an Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage done to party or raid members inside it by 75%. Lasts 30 seconds, or until it absorbs + 2 * AP spell damage). Useful if your party is heavy on melee DPS, as it provides shielding for party members. Situationally useful on bosses like Ionar and Loken, allowing the party to remain in place to deal damage. • Bone Shield (1/1, The DK is surrounded by 3 whirling bones. While at least 1 bone remains, the DK takes 20% less damage from all sources and deals 2% more damage with all attacks, spells and abilities.) This talent improves as avoidance improves. however total up-time is extremely low and unreliable compared to Frost and Blood Tanking CD's. • Crypt Fever (3/3, Your diseases cause Crypt Fever, which increases disease damage taken by the target by 30%.) Also makes your Death Strikes heal for 15% of your total health, opposed to 10%. • Ebon Plaguebringer (3/3, Your Crypt Fever morphs into Ebon Plague, which increases magic damage taken by 13% in addition to increasing disease damage taken. Improves your critical strike chance with weapons and spells by 3% at all times.) Highly useful for increasing the damage of caster DPS and boosts crit. This improves your tanking spells such as Death and Decay and Wandering Plague. Keep in mind, if in a raid, this buff doesn't stack with Boomkins or Warlocks. • Wandering Plague (3/3, There is a chance equal to your melee critical strike chance that diseases will cause 100% additional damage to the target and all enemies within 8 yards.) Ridiculous AoE damage. Unlike Frost talents, which focus on damage mitigation, Unholy tanking talents primarily focus on strengthening the DKs AoE effectiveness (although, again, exceptions to this exist). This allows the DK to remain the focus of a number of mobs at once with great effectiveness – in early testing, Unholy DKs have demonstrated the ability to deal AoE damage more effectively than any other class or build in WoW. However, because Unholy DK tanks lack much of the damage mitigation that Frost DKs possess, the must instead rely on avoidance to a greater degree than Frost DKs (avoidance is the act of creating missed attacks upon the DK by the mob, as opposed to mitigation, which involves absorbing the hit, and simply taking a small amount of damage from it. This is somewhat similar to the way Rogues survive — they create ‘misses’ from attacks made against them. Tanks that rely on avoidance are more difficult for a healer to work with, because damage is dished out in an “all or nothing” manner against the tank (as opposed to mitigation, which is a more “steady stream” of damage). Avoidance is “spiky” damage, and is more difficult for a healer to predict and deal with. This means that Unholy DKs will be a tougher chore for a healer, although not terribly so. Unholy is considered to be the weakest Tanking tree, and none of the top 100 guilds in the world use an Unholy DK Tank for endgame raiding. Blood Tree Talents **As of Cataclysm, Blood will be the only death knight tank tree.** The Blood tree specializes in increasing healing done to the tank (you), self healing and effective health. Tank-specific blood tree talents are: • Blade Barrier (5/5, Whenever your Blood Runes are on cooldown, you gain 5% damage reduction for 20 seconds.) Every tank regardless of spec should have this ability. • Spell Deflection (3/3, Optional. If you are not having threat problems, it is better than an increase to damage talent) • Veteran of the Third War (3/3, Increases your Stamina.) • Rune Tap (1/1, Optional. However, if you are not having threat problems, there is no reason not to take this talent. If used properly, it can prevent wipes. • Improved Rune Tap (3/3, Optional. Recommended if you spent a point in Rune Tap) • Mark of Blood (1/1, Causes each attack done by the boss to heal the current Tank for 4% of their Maximum Health, up to 20 times) • Vampiric Blood (1/1, Increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 35% and increases health by 15% for 15 sec.) The tooltip is misleading: all healing done to you benefits, not just your own. This results in a Tanking CD, that acts as a mini-Last Stand and Guardian Spirit simultaneously. • Will of the Necropolis (3/3, When you have less than 35% health, your damage taken by any attack is reduced by up to 15%.) • Improved Death Strike (2/2, Increases self healing from Death Strike to 15% of your Maximum Health) The Blood Tree is filled with Health increasing and Self-Healing talents. Because threat should not be a problem for any DK Tank in 3.3.3 or above, there is no reason to waste potential mitigation and survivability opportunities on increasing already adequate threat. Hysteria, 1/1 would also be a good option for a raid buff for a feral druid, combat rogue or warrior DPS in your raid. A Blood DK Tank, with the 4-set T10 Bonus (12% damage reduction for 10 seconds after using Blood Tap), should have enough CD's to rotate for any given length of a fight. The only CDs that should not be used on CD to maintain a constant tanking cooldown, are Anti-Magic shell (Save for large burst of magic damage) and Icebound Fortitude (An Oh SH** moment button, also useful for a large spike of damage, such as the Lich King's soul reaper ability). As a Blood Tank, your normal Attack should be Heart Strike, as it strikes a target and its ally, increasing your AoE threat on mobs. Make sure to put points into Death Rune Mastery to convert your Frost and Unholy Runes to Death Runes after a Death Strike. Icy Touch can also be used for snap threat and weak threat tanks. Most tanks spec some into Frost and Unholy, for increased Frost Damage and Icy Touch Damage (Largest increase to overall threat) as well as Unholy for Spell Hit and Dodge. Glyphs Depending on your spec and gear as a tank, the best glyph choices for you will vary. The 2 piece Tier 10 set bonus for Death Knight tanks provides the same effect as , so if you have 2 pieces of Tier 10 already, this glyph is generally unnecessary. It is also unnecessary if you are not having trouble with AoE threat without the glyph. However, it should be noted that it does stack, and if combined with a Howling Blast or an Unholy Spec, the AoE is very high, and if Blood specced, it can provide the AoE threat that that tree somewhat lacks. Every Death Knight talent tree has a 1 minute tanking cooldown in it. For Blood tanks, this ability is Vampiric Blood. For Frost tanks, this is Unbreakable Armor. For Unholy tanks, this is Bone Shield. In general, glyphing whichever of these three abilities you have is worthwhile. However, it should be noted that the Unbreakable Armor glyph is only useful for sub-Icecrown geared tanks, as it will only waste more armor over the Armor Cap (49,900 Armor). The Vampiric Blood glyph is espsecially important because it will cause your Vampiric Blood to last longer than it takes for runes to cool down, allowing at least one Death Strike heal to be increased by 35%. Other worthwhile tanking glyph choices include , , and . Note that is a bad glyph for tanks because at the defense cap, the damage reduction provided by it is already greater than 40%. Gems In general, Stamina is the most attractive stat for all tanking classes. Other tanking stats, like Dodge, Parry or Armor are useful for tanks, but none compare to Stamina, because Armor cannot reduce magic damage (and cannot be gemmed for), and avoidance is never reliable. In fact, high avoidance may even harm your survivability by confusing your healer; it was this reason that the Chill of the Throne was introduced. For this reason, DK tanks should gem in every non-meta socket except one which will contain the meta requirement for the optimal tanking meta gem, . Preferably, the one gem slot excluded will be the one that would offer the best socket bonus, in the cast of T10, the Helm. There are two good choices for this one gem: (+10 agility = +20 armor, minor dodge chance, and minor critical strike chance, minor armor), or (+1 or +2 expertise depending on current rating). The former is the optimal choice if you have enough expertise already (26 is good, higher than that never hurts for tanks), and the latter is the optimal choice if you could use some expertise. Remember that Rune Strike cannot be dodged or parried anyway, so being a bit low on expertise would not usually hurt your threat. Enchants * Head Slot: or Mind Amplification Dish for Engineers * Neck Slot: N/A * Shoulder Slot: (Low-End Gear: ) (High-End Gear: ) * Back Slot: Enchant Cloak - Major Armor or less desired, Enchant Cloak - Major Agility * Chest Slot: Enchant Chest - Super Health or less desired, Enchant Chest - Super Stats * Wrist Slot: Enchant Bracers - Major Stamina * Hand Slot: Glove Reinforcements, Reticulated Armor Webbing (for engineers) or less desired, Enchant Gloves - Armsman * Waist Slot: Eternal Belt Buckle with a Solid Majestic Zircon * Leg Slot: Frosthide Leg Armor * Feet Slot: Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality or less desired, Enchant Boots - Greater Fortitude * Ring Slots: Enchant Ring - Stamina if you are an Enchanter * Weapon: Runeforging, Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle for 2-Handed Tanking, 2x Rune of the Nerubian Carapace for dual-wielding tanks. Video Tutorials hOfhg7CI0fU unB7ZOs-j_s kPHppM92uoE NycG1NoBIfM See also *Death knight abilities *Death knight talents *Death knight builds *Death knight PvE guide External Links * * Category:Death knights Category:Guides Category:Tanking